


Reddit

by Yelena



Series: Social Media [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: M/M, Modern AU, Multi, Roommates, Seminarian Steve Rogers, Social Media, That's right Steve is studying to be a priest, They don't know each other at all
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-19
Updated: 2017-06-19
Packaged: 2018-11-15 22:51:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11240940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yelena/pseuds/Yelena
Summary: Seminarian Steve Rogers, was never a big fan of social media. When he moved in with a mysterious roommate, he eventually had to give in and use the power of the internet to figure out what was going on. Here’s a few facts he knew about Bucky Barnes:1. No friends had ever come to visit him.2. He sleeps a lot during the day.3. He shows signs of a hangover at least four times a week.4. When Steve comes home, at 6 PM, Bucky is never there.5. Bucky’s schedule is too wild for any formal job.6. It seems like he has enough money to afford the place all by himself, but chose to share it with a stranger.7. When Steve said he was studying to be a priest, Bucky looked like he'd heard Steve say he was a nazi.





	Reddit

**Author's Note:**

> ~Please~ don't forget to check the end notes, they are extremely important! I hope you guys enjoy this work.

The bedroom was pitch dark, except for the dim light coming from Steve’s laptop. He sat with crossed legs on his bed and stared blankly at the screen, his hands resting on the keyboard as if he was thinking about what to write. He had no idea how this Reddit thing could help, but it wasn’t like he could find answers by talking to his friends at the seminary. Of course he could always ask Bucky directly, but he would only be as evasive as possible… again.

The first time Steve tried to talk to him about anything personal, it was the day they met. Steve had seen an ad at the paper, something about a 21 years-old guy looking for someone to share an apartment with. He went for it and scheduled an interview. Bucky seemed really nice, until things started to get weird.

“So, where do you work?” Bucky asked at some point of their conversation.

“Starbucks.” Steve shrugged. “It’s temporary, I need money to live until I graduate.”

“Still in college?” Bucky frowned, visibly confused because Steve had already told him he was 25.

“No, I mean the seminary. I’m studying to be a priest.”

Bucky chocked at his tea and coughed a little. As much as he tried to keep a straight face, Steve could see he wasn’t very pleased at the answer. For all he knew, Bucky would shout “Hail, Satan!” and try to exorcise him, or whatever Satanists did when trying to get the Holy Spirit out of one’s body. Turns out, he didn’t do any of that.

“Are you in college?” Steve questioned, eventually, and Bucky chocked again.

“I… uhm… I work in the entertainment business?” It sounded like a question, almost like he was waiting for Steve to approve the answer. He didn’t.

“That’s vague… I can imagine anything from Jimmy Fallon to those guys who dress like superheroes for children birthday parties.”

“I wish I was Jimmy Fallon, at least he’s famous.” Bucky laughed for the first time that evening, and Steve decided he liked his laugh. “It’s more like parties, but don’t worry, you’ll never find weird costumes on the couch when you get back home.”

It was their first and last decent conversation. They got along very well and Bucky decided they were going to be roommates before Steve got up from the couch, but they never talked like that again. Conversations were casual, like whether they should cook dinner or order take outs, and whose turn it was to clean the bathroom, but never personal stuff. All they knew about each other came from that first meeting, and for a week it felt like there wasn’t much more.

Until Bucky came home with a black eye.

Steve tried to ask what happened, but Bucky had a polite way to remind him it was none of his business. He didn’t say a word when he brought a few ice rocks wrapped in cloth, and stared until Bucky decided to go to bed.

Bar fight, Steve thought. Bucky never tried to hide his hangovers, and Steve counted four that first week. For someone who drank so much, bar fights were probably normal.

After that, Steve started to pay closer attention to his roommate’s routine. There was no obvious patterns, as if he just did what he wanted, when he wanted, but it wasn’t the case. Steve took a month to realize that every time Bucky’s phone buzzed, he’d change to a nice outfit, fix his hair and leave. Sometimes he’d come back after an hour, sometimes he’d be gone till the next day. It was weird and Steve couldn’t help but notice this things, but he didn’t think much about it.

Until Bucky came home covered in blood.

It was three in the morning and Steve wasn’t supposed to be awake, but for the first time in months he had no reason to wake up early, so he decided late night Netflix was a good idea. Bucky was so quiet when he opened the door, Steve all but jumped out of his skin when he noticed there was someone else at the apartment.

The lights were on, and all Steve could see was _red_. Bucky had a split lip, a black eye and several tiny cuts on his face, as if the person who punched him wore several rings, or maybe it was brass knuckles. Still, the scariest thing was the white t-shirt soaked in blood.

“What happened?” Steve almost shouted as he jumped out of the couch to get closer to Bucky.

“Shit…” Bucky cursed as soon as he realized Steve was there.

His first impulse was to take his face between his hands turn his head to see every possible angle of the wounds, just like his own mother did when he got hurt. He had both hands inches away from Bucky’s face, then he realized there was no way to touch him without causing more pain. Bucky seemed very annoyed when he gently shoved Steve aside and headed to the bathroom.

Steve unblocked his way and stood still as he watched Bucky turn on the bathroom light. He saw him try to take off his shirt, but he couldn’t move enough to do so and ended up punching a wall instead. That’s when Steve decided to take a few steps until he stood at the doorframe.

“I can take you to the hospital. It seems like you lost a lot of blood.” He spoke softly, scared the suggestion would make Bucky angrier somehow. He didn’t want him to slam the door at his face and lock himself in there, where Steve couldn’t help.

“It’s not my blood.” Bucky groaned just before he did just what Steve feared the most.

He stood there for solid five minutes, both arms hanging on the sides of his body and eyes locked at the closed door in front of him, just like a scene in a weird surreal old movie. He heard the sound of multiple stuff falling to the ground, more punches to the wall and lots of cursing. Lots, lots of cursing. When everything stopped, Steve put a hand over the flat wood as if touching it would make him closer to Bucky.

“Buck?” He called quietly.  “Talk to me.”

“I’m fine!” Bucky answered in a tone that said the most definitely wasn’t. “Go back to History Channel or whatever you were watching.”

“Prison Break.” Steve corrected without even knowing why. “It’s a TV show about…”

“I know what it’s about.” His voice was harsh, but Steve smiled for some reason.

“Wanna watch it with me? It may take your head out of… whatever it is that happened.”

A long time of silence followed, as if neither could breathe or move. Steve didn’t know if Bucky had just decided to ignore him, but he wasn’t going to give up.

“Can we watch Gumball?” Bucky finally asked, and Steve smiled wider this time.

He opened the door carefully and tried really hard not to look shocked. Both cabinets, the one under the sink and the other behind the mirror, were open and all it’s content was spread on the ground. A very small scissor lay on top of the toiled lid, on top of Bucky’s cut t-shirt. Bucky sat on the floor, stripped to his boxers and curled like a baby in the womb. Even at this position, several bruises were visible beneath someone else’s dried blood.

Every visual evidence told a story where Bucky had probably killed someone, still he managed to look like a scared child. When he looked up at Steve, there was moisture on his eyes as if he was trying to keep tears from rolling down his cheeks. Steve didn’t ask before he helped him to get up, and Bucky didn’t thank him when he took his hand.

When they stood face to face, Steve looked down at Bucky’s body and his heart clenched. He was obviously spanked and if Steve had more experiences with bruises, those would tell him where Bucky was kicked, punched or hit with heavy objects. It looked bad, but it was just bruises. There were no cuts Steve could clean and bandage, no bleeding for him to stop. It should be a good thing, but it made him feel helpless: he could do nothing.

“Wanna take a shower, first?” He suggested.

Bucky nodded and let go of his hand to get inside the box. He didn’t take off his boxers, nor did he wait for Steve to give him some privacy before he turned on the spray of water. It was only when red started to run through Bucky’s face that Steve realized his hair had been as soaked in blood as the t-shirt he’d cut to take off.

“I’m gonna make us hot chocolate.” He announced before going to the kitchen, not even sure if Bucky heard him.

They spent the next hours watching random The Amazing World of Gumball’s episodes, and eventually Bucky couldn’t hold back his laugh. He’s hold his ribs when he did, obviously in pain when his body shook like that, but at least his mind should be clear from bad things. When the sun came up and they decided to go to bed, Bucky thanked Steve for saving him from a restless night.

Next day, Steve asked again about what happened.

“Let it go, sugar.” Bucky said with a sad smile.

Then, he left for one of his mysterious appointments and left Steve’s brain ticking.

Then, Steve decided he’s had enough.

A deep breath was all it took for him to get some nerves and start typing. It felt wrong, telling all those strange people about personal things that wasn’t anyone’s business. Still, he made a list of facts and published the post. Now it was out there, for anyone to see and guess.

***

_I HAVE A MYSTERIOUS ROOMMATE AND I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HE’S UP TO_

_I recently moved in with this guy I found on the yellow pages, and turns out he’s really weird. He won’t talk about family, friends, jobs or college. There are no photographs in the apartment, except the ones I have in my room, he’s not on facebook, twitter or Instagram (unless he doesn’t use his real name on internet), all his online info is at least two years old and it’s all vague. Here’s all the info I have about him:_

_1\. We’ve been living together of more than a month and no friends had ever come to visit him, not even to pick him up or whatever._  
2\. I come home at 6 PM every day, even on weekends, and the apartment’s always empty at this time.  
3\. His phone is protected by a very complicated unlocking pattern that looks like a star, and he leaves it on the kitchen table almost all day long. Whenever it rings or buzzes, he texts someone (no idea if it’s the same person every time), changes his clothes and leaves. Sometimes he’ll be back in a couple hours, sometimes he’ll be gone for a day. The timing is always random and I’ve never seen him break this pattern. It makes me think his routine is too wild for any job, but he swears he works somewhere he refuses to tell me.  
4\. He spends an obscene amount of money, so I’m sure he could afford our apartment without having to share it with a stranger, if he wanted.  
5\. He sleeps a lot during the day. Even when he comes home before midnight, he wakes up late and takes a nap in the afternoon.  
6\. He drinks a lot. Sometimes he has five hangovers in a week.  
7\. A few nights ago, he came home with bruises all over his face and body. His hair and t-shirt were soaked in someone else’s blood and he refused to tell me what happened. I asked him a million times and had no answer.  
8\. I’m studying to be a priest and I think it’s the main reason why he doesn’t trust me. When I told him, I half expected him to scream “Hail, Satan!” and kick me out.

_***_

Steve left his laptop open on the bed when he left to take a shower and eat some dinner. When he came back a few hours later, there already was some answers. Most people were just curious to know how it would end, but others were discussing a ridiculous theory that made him roll his eyes and edit the original post.

_[[EDIT]]: I’ve seen him in sunlight, stop saying he’s a vampire!_

**Author's Note:**

> I'd like to propose a thing: if you're thinking about a possible secret for Bucky, I'd very much like you to write it down on the comments. You don't have to write a review or anything, just say "My theory is..." and let me know what's on your mind, it might go from the comments straight to the next chapter. I already know what Bucky's up to, now I'd like to know what you think.


End file.
